Carrie Nation - Early Life and First Marriage

Early Life and First Marriage

Carrie Nation was born Carrie Amelia Moore in Garrard County, Kentucky, to slave owners George and Mary Campbell Moore. During much of her early life she was in poor health and her family experienced financial setbacks, moving several times and finally settling in Belton, Missouri in Cass County. She had poor education and informal learning. In addition to their financial difficulties, many of her family members suffered from mental illness, her mother at times having delusions. As a result, young Carrie often found refuge in the slave quarters.

During the Civil War, the family moved several times, returning to High Grove Farm in Cass County, Missouri. When the Union Army ordered them to evacuate their farm, they moved to Kansas City. Carrie nursed the wounded soldiers after a raid on Independence, Missouri.

In 1865 she met a young physician who had fought for the Union: Dr. Charles Gloyd, by all accounts a severe alcoholic. They were married on November 21, 1867, and separated shortly before the birth of their daughter, Charlien, on September 27, 1868. Gloyd died less than a year later of alcoholism, in 1869. Because of Gloyd's death, she developed a very passionate attitude against alcohol and liquor of all kinds. With the proceeds from selling the land her father had given her (as well as the proceeds from her husband's estate), Carrie built a small house in Holden, Missouri. She moved there with her mother-in-law and Charlien and attended the Normal Institute in Warrensburg, Missouri, earning her teaching certificate in July 1872. She taught at a school in Holden for four years but was fired from her job.